Facebook Data Breach

Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg apologized for the data breach that was revealed last week. Mr Zuckerberg took out full-page advertisements in broadsheet newspapers in the UK and US to make his apology for the data privacy scandal. Zuckerberg was being criticized for being too slow to respond to the news. Personal data on up to 50 million users was used by a U.S. political consultancy called Cambridge Analytica. This company is accused of using the leaked data to benefit Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Zuckerberg said: “This was a breach of trust, and I am sorry….We’re now taking steps to make sure this doesn’t happen again.” The apology made no mention of Cambridge Analytica.

Mr Zuckerberg acknowledged that Facebook could and should have done more to protect user data and to stop it being exploited. Reports are now circulating that Facebook was warned its data protection was too weak back in 2011. Mr Zuckerberg outlined the actions Facebook would take going forward. He said: “We’re investigating every single app that had access to large amounts of data before we fixed this. We expect there are others. And when we find them, we will ban them and tell everyone affected.” The value of Facebook has fallen by $75 billion this week; Zuckerberg’s wealth fell by $10 billion. There has also been a surge in users abandoning their Facebook pages, in online calls to #deletefacebook.

Comprehension Questions:

What kind of newspapers did Facebook put ads in to apologize?

What is Mark Zuckerberg being criticized for?

How many users may have had their data exploited?

What kind of company is Cambridge Analytica?

What is Facebook taking to ensure there is not another data breach?

What could and should Facebook have done to protect data?

When was Facebook warned about its weak data protection?

What is Facebook now investigating?

How much less is Mark Zuckerberg worth since the scandal began?

What is the hashtag that is encouraging users to close their page?

Vocabulary:

Look at the words below and try to recall how they were used in the text